This website is devoted to making the history of

the Rural Sociological Society and rural sociology more accessible.

Additions and suggestions are always welcome!

Presidential Trivia

Below are just some tidbits of trivia about some of our presidents.

Please send suggestions for additions.

Daniel Lichter (2010-2011) is the third RSS presidents to also

serve as president of the Population Association of America.

The first woman elected President

of the Rural Sociological Society was

Margaret Jarman Hagood (1955-1956).

It was 32 years before the next woman was elected

RSS President: Cornelia Flora (1988-1989).

Robert Polson (1950-1951) was the first

RSS President employed in an

extension faculty position.

                                                                                                    

Three years after serving as the 1st President of the Rural Sociological Society,

Dwight Sanderson was elected President of the American Sociological Society

(later named the American Sociological Association [ASA]).

Carl Taylor (RSS President 1939-1940) was the first

president of the ASA to serve in the position

while employed outside of academia.

Charles Loomis

(RSS President 1947-1948, ASA President 1967)

translated Ferdinand Tönnies' Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.

He began work on it while employed in the

USDA's Division of Farm Population and Rural Life.

Bill Sewell was not only President of RSS (1954-1955),

         he also served as president of the ASA (1971)

and the Midwestern Sociological Society (1953-1954).

Please send suggestions, ideas, or changes to:

Julie N. Zimmerman

RSS Historian

Associate Professor, Rural Sociology

Dept. of Community and Leadership Development, University of Kentucky

jzimm@email.uky.edu

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